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Well, last week’s attempt at faux letterpress went ok, not the best results, but still usable. I am wanting to try letterpress again, but I’m waiting for some new ink to arrive! In the mean time, I used last week’s faux letterpress panels to make two cards.

This first card used the soft mint green ink panel that wasn’t inked very well.

I wrapped some bakers twine around the panel and tied a bow. I then layered several flower die cuts, gently curling the petals, and secured it with an epoxy brad. I attached it to the panel with glue dots. I used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch on some glitter paper and glued those onto the card, bending the wings up for interest. I secured the panel to a card base using a generous amount of pop dots. The embossed panel can be a bit warped and twisted, so using a bunch of adhesive was good to make it lay flat. The soft minty green compliments the muted teal in these papers from Teresa Collins.

The next card is made from pieces of two panels. These panels didn’t come out well on one end, so I cut parts from the good end to make smaller bits to use.

I attached the panels with Crafty Power Tape to the top and bottom of the blue card front. I heat embossed a sentiment in gold embossing powder in the center. The card still needed a little something, so I took two wood veneer hearts by Freckled Fawn and embossed those in the same gold powder. To heat emboss the hearts, I pressed them into an embossing ink pad, then dipped them into the embossing powder. I used tweezers to make it easier, and to hold them while I heat embossed. I then attached them to the bottom embossed panel with glossy accents. I then attached the blue card front to a blank card base.

Two quick and easy cards from the faux letterpress experiment from last week! Even if something doesn’t turn out exactly how you thought, it can still be used beautifully! I’m glad I tried this technique, and can’t wait to try it again!

Don’t forget to make time to be creative this week! Join in our Monday Challenge and use wood veneers on your project and link up your blog! I can’t wait to see what you create!

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It’s the start of a new week and a new challenge to inspire you! First, let me share with you an entry from a new participant, Francesca. She made a beautiful, glittery embossed birthday card for a friend.

Click the image, or her name above to see the full card on her blog. Thanks for participating, Francesca! I look forward to seeing more of your work!

This week’s challenge is to use WOOD VENEERS on your project. Again, this can be a layout, card, mixed media, or any such project. Just be creative, and use some wood veneers!

I have to admit….I have a bit of a problem with wood veneers. I have an addiction problem. 😉 I love these little things! They add a great touch to your page without tons of depth, and there are so many styles and designs to choose from! I’m sure I have more veneers than I can use, but I’m trying!

The following layout was made with several different wood veneers, and was inspired by sketch #183 over at Nuts About Sketches.

It’s hard for me to believe this little guy is now 11 and almost as tall as I am! I used wood veneers from Freckled Fawn, Studio Calico, and Maya Road on this layout. I will often ink or spray or even heat emboss the wood elements, but for this layout, I left them the natural wood color. I really like how the embellishment clusters turned out!

An enamel dot fits perfectly into the lens area of the camera! Tiny stars and more enamel dots join with ink splatter in teal and silver to finish this cluster.

More ink splatter, and enamel dots are in each cluster. This cluster has a tiny wooden heart by Freckled Fawn that fits perfectly into a Maya Road polaroid style frame. Some words and a little boy figure completed this grouping.

Sam has made a card for this challenge! Go visit her blog to see how versatile these embellishments can be!

Here’s how the challenge works: Create a NEW project with WOOD VENEERS and link your blog post below. Take some time out of your week and be crafty! I can’t wait to see what you make!

(I am in the process of moving my blog to a new server to allow the thumbnails to be listed at the bottom of the post. Please click through to go to the linky page. Thank you for your patience as we make this change. I hope it will be completed before next week’s challenge!)

Challenge Rules:
*If it’s a color challenge, be sure to feature the colors in the challenge, additional colors may be added as accents.
*Limit of 3 projects linked per challenge. Each submission must have a unique link. Do not upload multiple submissions with the same link.
*Only link new projects.
*Please provide a link back to the challenge on your blog post.
*We reserve the right to remove any posting that does not meet this criteria.

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This past summer, my kids and I spent several afternoons in a friend’s pool. The kids had a blast! I was regretting not bringing my camera one day, so I settled for my iPhone for a few quick snaps. (well, maybe more than a few…) I was very pleased with how those photos turned out! I was very surprised and happy!

I ended up with 9 photos that I wanted to put on a layout. I couldn’t narrow it down further. To fit that many photos on a layout, a single page layout at that, I used my photo editing software to help me. I opened a 4×6 new file, and resized my photos to make a collage that fit within those parameters. The layout only uses two 4×6 photos. The first photo has one 4×4 and two 2×2 images. The other photo is comprised of six 2×2 photos.

I love how this turned out! I used strips of patterned paper at the top and bottom to draw your eye into the layout. The splashes are fussy cut from mirrored paper. I glued down the pointed end, but used a pop dot under the other end to make the splashes come alive. Some enamel dots were the perfect accent and enhanced the ‘wet’ theme of the layout. The bright happy colors and smiling kid faces make this one a favorite layout!

You’ve still got the weekend to get your embossed project linked up to our Monday Challenge! Take some time to be creative and link up! See you Monday with a new challenge and this week’s featured entry from our second challenge!

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I want to take the opportunity today to show you something new I tried. I’ve heard a few people mention faux letterpress as a beautiful technique. It’s one I’ve been wanting to try, so I pulled out a couple embossing folders to try it!

The premise of this technique is to ink one side of the embossing folder on the inside, then put the paper inside and run it through your big shot or cuttlebug. The first ink I tried was a distress ink, but it immediately beaded up and I knew it was not going to work for what I wanted. I cleaned the folder and tried some Mix’d Media ink. Here is my first try:

I think my ink pad may need to be re-inked. The color wasn’t very intense, and the result is very soft. I’m not sure if parts weren’t embossed enough to get the ink, or if there wasn’t enough ink in general. It did give a pretty result, but again – very soft. It’s not the color intensity I was looking for.

Next I tried the Denim Blue ink color of Mix’d Media ink.

Well, I got the color intensity I was looking for, but the result was less than crisp! The ink pad wasn’t very well suited to this technique in my opinion, as it got down in the area I was leaving without color, even when I was being super careful. I noticed it also smeared or had a doubled image on the end that went through the machine last. Not sure if that was user error or what, so I tried again with another ink.

The remaining attempts were using Ancient Page Light Brown Ink by ClearSnap. Here are the next three tries to get a good impression.

Tries number 3 and 4 had similar messy results as the blue one above. On the 5th try, I turned the folder around to see if maybe it was the folder….it wasn’t. As you can see, the bottom is clear and the top is messy. The messy end was the last part to go through the machine.

I then had the thought that maybe I needed a folder that was less ornate. I switched out the tropical paisley pattern for a more simple flourish.

Better….but no. There were parts of the folder that didn’t seem to get enough pressure and the ink didn’t transfer. Once again, I wanted to try one last time! I was starting to get pretty frustrated!

Here is my final attempt:

Sigh. Well….this DOES seem to be the best one….It’s still not right, though. I ended up using a shim and it was too thick, so the paper ripped within the flourish in a few places. It’s not large tears, just small ones. In fact, I didn’t notice them until I realized I could see light through the paper in spots. This did give a better impression, but still not right.

I’m not exactly sure what I may be doing wrong. It’s definitely a technique I’m not willing to give up on – I think the results can be very beautiful. Have you tried this technique? Do you have any tips for me? I think I may still be able to use some of these impressions for some cards or perhaps layering pieces. We’ll see where they end up!

Monday’s Challenge this week is about embossing. You can get all the details here. You’ve got until Sunday night at midnight to link up your project. Also be sure to check out Scrapping With Pirkie and see what Sam’s been making!

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It’s the start of the second week, now, and I hope that last week’s posts inspired you to make some craftiness of your own!

We only had one link up last week, but I know this is a new challenge series. I hope that more people are able to join in this week! Before I share the new challenge, let’s see the submission we had for the last link up.

This is Monica’s card. I adore those teal butterflies! They give just the right pop of color and I just love them! Thanks for joining in, Monica! Monica has a new blog started, and I hope we’ll see more of her beautiful creations again soon!

Ok, I know you’re wanting to know this week’s challenge……and it’s EMBOSSING! I think embossing is so cool! It’s so easy to do, but has a huge wow factor! To enter this week, you need to make a card, layout, or any project that has embossing on it. (mixed media would be awesome with some embossing!) It can be either wet embossing, dry embossing, or both!

Here’s an easy card that has both types of embossing on it:

I dry embossed the bottom portion of the card by selectively using an embossing folder in my big shot. I figured out where I wanted the silver glitter tape, then tried to emboss a phrase above that. I forgot to use a powder tool to eliminate the static, and ended up with a less than desirable result. boo! I then cut off the top portion, and spliced on a new piece of cardstock to make it the original size I started with. The glitter tape covers the seam. (the photo shows the seam, but it must have caught the light just right – it’s not noticeable in person.)

I then covered a piece of raw chipboard with embossing ink and used white embossing powder to cover it. This gave me a shiny white element that was perfect for adding my greeting. I added a few silver stars that matched the greeting, and mounted it all onto the card base. The above photo shows all the dimension in the dry embossing, too!

Of course, Sam is joining me again this week on the challenge! She’s awesome! 😉 Go visit her blog to see her creation!

Here’s how the challenge works: Create a NEW project with EMBOSSING and link your blog post below. Take some time out of your week and be crafty! I can’t wait to see what you make!

(I will be making some changes to the blog soon to allow the thumbnails to be listed at the bottom of the post. Please click through to go to the linky page.)

Challenge Rules:
*If it’s a color challenge, be sure to feature the colors in the challenge, additional colors may be added as accents.
*Limit of 3 projects linked per challenge. Each submission must have a unique link. Do not upload multiple submissions with the same link.
*Only link new projects.
*Please provide a link back to the challenge on your blog post.
*We reserve the right to remove any posting that does not meet this criteria.

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Fridays are going to be my photo sharing days. I hope to share a photo with you and the layout I made, or the card that was inspired by the colors in the photo.

Here’s the photo that I used to inspire the colors chosen for my card. (I ran out of time to finish my layout, so I whipped up a card from another photo, instead! I’ve been cleaning/reorganizing my scrap space. It was all kinds of crazy since we moved back home after some major renovations to the house.)

I took this photo while our family was waiting in line at the Fair. This was the first year we went, and we all had a blast! You could purchase tickets for ride admission, or you could pay one flat fee, and get a bracelet that let you ride everything. We all got the bracelets, and it was nice to not worry about how much each ride cost. These signs were posted at every ride with the ticket requirements and height restrictions. There were 3-4 different characters that were on various signs. This little dude cracked me up. He appears shocked to find that this ride costs three whole tickets! I giggled every time I saw him. (maybe you had to be there….or we can just accept the fact that I’m weird!)

I took a photo because I thought it was funny, but I also realize I’m probably not going to be scrapping that photo. The colors at the fair were so vibrant and happy. I’m pretty sure all fairs are that way! Since this photo won’t be in my scrapbook, let’s use it in another way – as inspiration. I loved the dark pink, rich blue and touch of yellow. Here’s what I created:

The Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper collection had the right mix of saturated, happy colors. I used several pieces from my 6×6 inch pad. The floral pattern had all three colors and the deep denim blue gave visual weight to the bottom of the card. I rounded the top corners of the floral pattern and inked it in blue to help define the edge. Pink enamel dots gave a punch of color to those top corners and two pink bands covered the seam.

For the greeting, I used a PinkPaislee clear stamp from their Portfolio collection. I stamped it onto some patterned paper and clear embossed the image. Then I used Faded Jeans Distress Ink to darken the negative space to make the greeting stand out. After fussy cutting the image, I used pop dots to adhere it to the card. To finish it off, I rounded the top corners of the card base, and added some faux stitching to the pink strips behind the greeting.

That wraps up today’s creative share. Next Friday I’ll share another photo, and the layout using that picture. Be sure to stop by Sam’s blog to see what cuties are showing up in her photos!

There’s still time to make a window card and link it to Monday’s Challenge! If you haven’t had a moment, try to find a small bit of time that you can use to be creative and recharge! Have a great weekend, see you on Monday!

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Wednesdays will be a grab-bag of randomness. It may be a tutorial….a video….a creative share…crazy ramblings…. It could be anything. It’s going to be my Whatever Wednesday post! 🙂

One of the things I really want to do more of this year, is card making. I love homemade cards. There are so many elegant, fun, quirky, and, well, WHATEVER kind of card you need! I’ve been pinning on Pinterest like crazy tons of beautiful cards. (you can follow me on Pinterest by clicking this link.) I’ve been challenging myself to make more cards these past few months, as I’ve had creative time, and I wanted to share some of them with you today.

The first card I’m sharing is one I love for the simplicity of the design.

The charcoal shimmery cardstock, wood veneers, and silver twine under the label made the card come together very quickly, but elegantly.

The next two cards use a file I created on my silhouette. I have seen an owl punch that people used to create all sorts of animals and creatures by simply manipulating how/where the pieces were glued down. I looked for a similar basic outline, and traced the free clip art shape. It was a bit tedious to make all the smaller parts and figure out what I wanted to weld to it or alter to make it unique to me.

This card shows the owl put together as he’s designed. Cute, easy, and fast!

This variation shows that by welding some of the shapes together, resizing some elements, and moving around parts – you can come up with a completely different look! I also wanted to have some fun on the inside….

I made three more adorable aliens and made a pop up card. I think my favorite alien is the purple spotted one!

With trying to make more cards, I found a blog that issued weekly card challenges to help inspire me and push me to carve out some creative time each month. I started joining the challenges at the end of October. I was able to get one of my cards submitted, but the rest of the cards I made when I followed along, never were uploaded in time. We were going through some major renovations at our house and were displaced into a hotel, so it was a bit crazy for a while as we moved back home and unpacked. The blog took a break for the Thanksgiving holidays, and it ended up closing down at the end of November. 😦 (and if you’re friends with me on FaceBook, some of these may look familiar.)

One of the challenges was to make a poinsettia card. I cut a bunch of poinsettia flowers and some leaves out of some white cardstock. I started playing with some supplies that I had allowed to gather dust for far too long…. Here’s my poinsettia card.

I’m very pleased with how it looks! Such a rich looking flower and with the right touches of gold. The little yellow sequins made the perfect center for the flower.

I had some left over flowers, so I started inking and playing.

A 3×4 cut apart sheet card and a die-cut that was cut down gave a perfect landing spot for this pink flower. I don’t even see that it’s a poinsettia because the coloring and theme are so different, but it’s the very same cut on my silhouette!

Some ink drops and spray….inking petals and layering them together….and a sprinkling of sequins and tiny punched hearts.

The next issued challenge that was to create a card with Fall/Autumn colors. (I think that’s how the challenge was worded)

I’ve had these gold leaves in my stash, but hadn’t used them, so I really wanted to break them out and get one used. I love how it came together. Here’s a secret – the die-cut in the background had words that didn’t go along with the theme, and was a smidge too long for the card front. The shape and coloring of the edge was just what I wanted. So, I got a bit creative… I cut it in two and put the cut edges hidden behind the leaf. When you first see the card you probably didn’t notice that the “center” of the die-cut is off center. 😉 The banner also helped hide the unwanted text on the die-cut. It’s about adapting what you have to make it work for you.

The next three cards use the WeRMemoryKeepers Storytime papers.

This card uses a large ornate sticker from my stash that coordinated beautifully with the paper’s colors. Some sequins gave it a bit of shine.

This card also uses some stickers and a piece of chipboard from my stash. Again, the colors are just beautiful in this collection, and I also love the weight of their papers.

The last card I made with these papers would be great for an anniversary card. “…and they lived happily ever after. THE END” The greeting is actually cut out from a 6×6 patterned block on the B side of one of their papers.

This last card I want to share with you was just me playing around with some pretty colors, and using border strips to make some pennants as a backdrop.

Using a border punch on the front edge gives a peek to a strip of coordinating paper inside. A lovely detail.

Whew! That was 11 cards! I’m so glad you stopped by today. If there is any technique or product that you’d like to learn more about, leave me a comment and I’ll put it on my schedule to cover on a future Whatever Wednesday. You’ve still got lots of time to link up to Monday’s Challenge. Take some time to be creative this week!

P.S. Be sure to stop in on Sam’s blog to see her recent crafty haul and find out where she finds bargains!

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I know I teased about lots of new things coming to the blog this year. The first thing will be a weekly challenge that you can link your blog with a thumbnail. You already know that you can expect new content every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Be sure to come back on Wednesday to see what I’ll be doing!

Here’s how the challenges will work: Each Monday, at 8am, I’ll post a new challenge. You have one week to make something – that’s the theme – MAKE SOMETHING – take time to be creative each week! You can link your projects below. You’ll have until Sunday at midnight to submit your link. Then on Monday, I’ll pick my favorite project and feature it on my blog and issue a new challenge.

Our first challenge is…make a WINDOW CARD!

Have a design on the inside that is visible when the card is closed.

Here are two examples of cards I’ve made using this technique.

This first card, I used a circle cutter to cut the front panel and the colored cardstock. I used some American Crafts die-cuts from an Amy Tangerine line. This made the card come together super fast! Both the die-cuts are on pop dots for some depth. Some quick pen lines similar to the design of the die-cuts and some tone on tone sequin action completed the card. I really like the sequins on this one! They give the perfect amount of shine and interest without overpowering and taking the attention from the die-cuts.

When the card is opened, you still see the greeting and have plenty of room to jot a short note.

The next card I want to share with you is too stinkin’ cute! I really love how it turned out!

This one is a square card and I used a circle punch to get the circles in all the layers. The card is made from scraps that were destined for the garbage, but I loved the colors and patterns, so I put them to use to make this card. I think it would be a great birthday card for anyone!

As you open the card, you see a flash of the inside scalloped frame around the stamped bird.

And here is the inside. I have to admit, that little birdie gave me a couple of fits. The first stamping didn’t take dark enough, so I used a pen to trace it but I didn’t like how it was looking. So, then I stamped it onto another piece and cut around it and used the scalloped frame to hide the patchwork. (the inside frame was not in my original design idea) I started coloring the bird using my Faber-Castell Big Brush Pens and a paintbrush and water to use like a watercolor. I was loving how the bird was turning out!! Then I painted the beak. And it went wrong…My hand shook JUST as I touched the brush down and my adorable birdie now had an orange blob for a nose. DRAT! Well, I had patched it once…..now what? I stamped the bird once again onto another piece of paper and painted the beak FIRST, then painted the turquoise, and fussy cut him out to put him in the card. WHEW! I love the final result!!

My friend, Sam Pirkle, is joining me on the challenges to give you even MORE inspiration! You can find her blog HERE. She has all the details posted over there on how she made this awesome card!

Now, how can you get in on this challenge? Make a window card and link it below. Make sure you have an element on the inside that is visible when the card is closed. Next Monday, I’ll pick a favorite and highlight it on my blog when I issue the new challenge. It’s that easy! Now, go make something! Get creative this week!

Challenge Rules:
*If it’s a color challenge, make sure you feature the colors in the challenge, additional colors may be added as accents.
*Limit of 3 projects linked per challenge. Each submission must have a unique link. Do not upload multiple submissions with the same link.
*Only link new projects.
*Please provide a link back to the challenge on your blog post.
*We reserve the right to remove any posting that does not meet this criteria.

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Welcome to the first day of the new year! A new beginning….a fresh start….opportunities for growth and change! That’s what you’ll be seeing here on the blog! I’m finalizing details, but this is the year that I take my blog seriously. I want my readers to be able to depend on new content regularly. (Even readers as many or few as I may have!) I want to grow creatively this year, and hope that you’ll embrace the opportunity to grow with me. You’ll see new content at least three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Occasionally there may be more posts. You can expect to see challenges, tutorials, creative shares, and eventually I hope to get some videos posted! Of course, there will probably be a smattering of family posts, too. First and foremost I’m a mom to four great kids and a wife to a wonderful man! Be sure to come back on Monday, January 6th and see what’s new!